Silicon Valley Startup - Deliver On-Demand Sunlight Straight From Space

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sunlight-as-a-service

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Disrupting the natural light cycle. What could possibly go wrong?

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But, astronomers and scientists are not on board with this out-there idea. The extra light will disrupt the cycle of nocturnal animals, invade telescopes and even increase the risk of collisions in orbit. There are also no global rules for this innovation, presenting the question: Who decides where the light shines, and who is left in the dark?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finds this especially troubling. “From an astronomical perspective, that’s pretty catastrophic,” says Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom.

The Silicon Valley startup has asked the FCC if it can launch its first experimental satellite as early as 2026. Long-term, they ultimately hope to have placed up to 4,000 mirror-equipped satellites in low Earth orbit by 2030.

An astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada, Samantha Lawler, told Live Science the undertaking was a “terrible idea”. She explained that if only one mirror were launched, its light could blind observers using telescopes or binoculars. With thousands of reflectors in orbit, stargazing would become nearly impossible.

“One tiny company in California can, with a few million dollars and the approval of a single US federal agency, change the night sky for everyone in the world”, she said.

Fionagh Thomson, a space ethics researcher at Durham University in England, said: “It is highly unlikely to come to fruition due to the complexity of the engineering involved, and trying to operate through busy orbits such as LEO”.

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So, Die Another Day?

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